The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1203

The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1203

Chapter 1203
Davey almost felt that someone or something was subtly egging him on. However, it wasn’t the same kind of overwhelming force that had tried to suppress him back when the authority of the Predatory Assimilation went berserk. It was instead something far more insidious, something that made him believe that everything he felt was natural, his own.
If not for Goddess Freyja slapping him, he might not have noticed it at all.
The strangest part was just how natural it all felt.
“This is...”
Once he became aware of it, everything felt completely different. He had no clue what he would’ve done back there if she hadn’t stopped him.
Given that killing the emperor hadn't brought much real gain, the whole situation was far more serious than it had initially seemed.
“What, are you all alone?”
“No, I'm married.”
Davey’s face grew grim as the group of bandits approached. Looking back, he realized he had already been unknowingly making certain decisions without question for some time.
However, he also knew that it wasn’t the time to get lost in his own thoughts. As Goddess Freyja had said, finding Reina, who’d been left alon,e was the priority.
Davey was the only one who could protect her if something went wrong.
However, locating her was another issue.
“Boss, he's just messing with us, right?”
“I thought about letting him go since he doesn’t look like he's worth much, but yeah, no. Hey, you—”
“Megalodria.”
Boom!!
The air itself suddenly trembled.
The bandits that were just about to say something froze in place as the sky above them tore open, and the suffocating pressure pressed them down.
“W-What the hell...?”
Their eyes widened as they stared blankly at the scene unfolding behind Davey.
Thick black mist poured out from the tear. From within it emerged a black dragon so massive, so oppressive, that its very presence made their legs tremble. To ordinary people, the sight of it descending from the skies was utterly alien, terrifying beyond belief.
“
Aaaah!!
”
“Shit!! It's a giant wyvern!!”
“Run!!”
Considering that wyverns were usually massive monsters that suddenly appeared and attacked carriage horses, there was no doubt they were objects of fear for the men.
Judging by their reactions, one could glean they’d never seen a dragon before. As they panicked at the sight of a wyvern, the largest creature they could imagine, Megalodria let out a low growl.
[Did you just compare me to some pathetic flying pest?]
Even though it was the wisest among the Mythical Beast Kings, Megalodria was still a beast at heart.
As it stared at the fleeing men, it began charging a breath attack. Davey knew if the attack hit, not only the bandits but the entire area would be blown to bits. “Stop.”
However, it seemed he had muttered too quietly.
The charge intensified.
“I said stop!!” Normally, he would’ve forcefully interrupted the mana flow. Yet in that moment, his thoughts were scattered and unstable.
His raised voice, filled with tension, made Megalodria flinch. It dispersed the breath and looked down at Davey.
[Contractor?]
“Sorry, Mega. I’m sorry... but I need you to just listen to me for now.”
Realizing from his tone that something wasn’t right, it slowly descended and lowered its body.
[You wouldn’t have called me without a reason. So, where are we going?]
It always insisted to not be treated as a mount, and yet there it was, offering itself willingly.
“We take off in a general direction for now. I need to find Reina.”
[What happened? You’re not usually the type to act this low-key.]
“I'm just overcome with self-loathing right now.”
The weight in his voice clearly didn’t sit right with Megalodria, though it said nothing in response. Instead, it simply took flight with Davey on its back.
Of course, the moment Megalodria revealed its immense form in the forest and soared into the sky above the nearby territory, countless rumors began to spread through the land.
However, that wasn’t his concern.
* * *
While the continent where the Nacha Empire resided wasn’t exactly vast, calling it small would’ve been wrong as well.
Taking to the skies atop Megalodria in order to search for Reina had been the right move. However, the only avenue of investigation Davey had was to reverse trace the dimensional passage he had used to first send the group ahead.
The problem was the countless number of possible destinations. Reina had already seemingly disappeared from most of them, as if she were already on the move.
[This is foolish. Just ask the goddess who interfered and separated you, Contractor.]
Realistically, only Goddess Freyja could’ve interfered and snatched Reina from the dimensional travel. That meant she surely knew where the girl was. Alas, ever since that incident, she’d cut off all communication with him.
She hadn’t warned him back then, only because it had already been too late.
Things could still be changed.
In a way, this might be the last chance.
“No. I’ll stick to this method in order to find her.”
He knew he was being stubborn. The fact that she’d called out his inner issues, even at the cost of disrupting the larger flow, had already been more than enough for Davey.
“Being the Primordial God sounds like a pretty fuckin’ exhausting job.”
[What nonsense are you on about now?]
“I’m saying I’d rather die than take that role. There’s no chance I’d let it happen.”
‘Not that it’d even be possible, anyways.’
[Dammit! How long do we have to keep flying around!?]
Its massive form was impossible to hide. Rumors of its presence had already spread across the continent.
Fortunately enough, the places Davey searched were mostly remote plains or dense forests and not populated territories, which made it possible to avoid unnecessary trouble.
What he found interesting was the excessive amount of bandits on the continent.
“This is the last spot to check. If she’s not here, we’ll have to try something else. You can go and head back now, I’ve got it from here.”
Megalodria looked like it had a lot to say but remained silent about it, simply staring at Davey for a while before speaking once more.
[Whatever you're struggling with, don’t forget that you're my contractor. No matter the situation, we’ll always have your back.]
That support alone gave Davey strength. “Thanks.”
Letting out a final roar, Megalodria disappeared into the sky.
Davey began checking the final location where the dimensional passage had once connected. He silently hoped there’d be a trace in the place. Yet deep down, a darker thought crept in.
If something had happened to Reina, if she’d been harmed in any way, he’d destroy the entire dimension without hesitation.
Aside from how much he himself had changed, the empire’s dimension was distinctly different from any others he’d encountered.
Soon, Davey reached the last of the faint traces of energy. There he found a destroyed carriage along with dozens of corpses, leaving him speechless.
A familiar yet deeply unsettling dark and oppressive energy lingered in the air.
“Reina!”
His instincts screamed that the traces left behind belonged to her. He dashed in, checking the bodies one by one.
Fortunately enough, Reina wasn’t among the corpses.
Not that there were many who could even harm her in the first place, but Goddess Freyja’s warning still echoed in his head.
All the corpses had died from clean puncture wounds or precise slashes. The scars matched the ones left by her signature energy swords. However, there were some mysterious black markings on them as well.
The contours of their injuries had turned pitch black. Not from rotting or some disease, but as if the color had been drained.
The Reina Davey knew didn’t wield such a power, which could only mean that something had gone wrong on her end.
He instinctively called upon the power of the spirits.
“Gnoass.”
Though something had forced the spirits into hiding, he dragged them back out with the authority of the Spirit King.
The ground rippled, and a small palm-sized golem slowly emerged.
[It’s been a while, Contractor.]
“I’d ask how the Spirit World is doing, but first... I need you to do something more important for me.”
As Gnoass looked around, he quickly picked up on the situation.
[You want me to read their memories?]
“Please.”
[Understood.]
There were many ways to do so, such as using divine power or Dragontongue, but the least disruptive was to use the authority of the Spirit King. It minimized both energy output and environmental impact.
In such a delicate situation, the more Davey used his own power, the more likely he was to snap.
Suppressing that danger, he still spent time wondering what exactly was causing the strange dissonance within him.
Gnoass raised both his tiny arms. While he had only manifested to about the size of a hand, a Spirit King was still a Spirit King.
Following his subtle gesture, the earth shook. Hidden earth spirits slowly revealed themselves and passed their memories to Gnoass, who then relayed them to Davey.
- No... No!!
The image of Reina clutching her head in agony and screaming in distress flashed into mind. He immediately clenched his hands.
Such suffering wasn’t what he brought her with him for. He’d only wanted to help, easing the burden she'd taken on over the situation with Park Seung-Hyun. That was all.
However, she was suffering because of him. Not even the empire—just him.
That truth wasn’t easy for him to swallow.
Whatever was happening, he couldn’t be sure of anything until he met her again face-to-face. Seeing her once pure white energy swords all tainted into a murky, blood-red black, it was clear she was in a critical state.
Watching the transformation was like seeing a pure white angel turn into a fallen angel.
Despite seeing the memories by utilizing the remnant spirits, there was still no way to track her down. Everything connected to her had been cut off.
“Gnoass, bury all these bodies. Leave no trace.”
[As you wish.]
After he vanished into the earth, Davey slowly rose from his crouched position.
“If you don’t want to die, come out.” His cold voice shot like an arrow into the brush beyond, yet there was no reply. “You three over there! I might just lose my temper, and I can’t be held responsible for what will happen then. Come out. Now.”
As his faith in himself wavered, the most dangerous variables were the powers he held. The power as the Antagonist; the King of the Red Void; the Monarch of the Predatory Assimilation; and the levels of the Death Lord. Even the authority of the Goddess and the Primordial Predator.
The powers he’d devoured without restraint were inevitably the most affected by his emotions.
Now that he knew how fragile the balance truly was, he finally understood just how much he’d been suppressing them while maintaining a big smile on his face.
‘I definitely wasn’t normal. Insane, almost.’
Letting out a self-deprecating chuckle, he looked over at the three young people who had finally revealed themselves.
He was a young boy, a girl who looked even younger, and an older girl.
They looked so much alike that he assumed them to be siblings.
“You’re...” He didn’t know who they were, naturally. However, he was certain that they would lead him to Reina.
He had seen the memories of Reina protecting them from the soldiers disguised as bandits. They were the owners of the destroyed carriage.
He assumed they must’ve fled during the chaos when Reina had shouted, only to come back out of concern for her.
“Miss, be careful! That man... he’s dangerous!”
At that moment, three more men joined the group, stepping in between Davey and the siblings. They all drew their swords in unison, tense and ready to fight.
Davey looked at them and quietly asked, “The woman who was here—where did she go?”
The horrifying killing aura in his voice made them all flinch.
“That’s...”
“She was protecting you. Am I wrong?”
“H-How do you know that?!”
“I’m the one asking questions here.”
Boom!!
The power Davey had been suppressing, unstable and barely held in check, flared for a moment. It shook the ground beneath them.
“
Hic!
” The youngest girl dropped to her knees, tears welling in her eyes.
She wasn’t the only one to do so. The guard-looking fellows paled, and the rest stood frozen in place, unable to speak.
Davey pulled himself together. Such outbursts were something he’d grown far too used to doing.
When he’d tried reconnecting with Goddess Frejya, she kept saying the same thing.
- Think about what happened to Thanatos.
What a joke.
Davey knew full well that neither Neltarid nor Thanatos had been Evil Gods from the start.
Her point was obvious. She saw that Davey was taking on a path far too similar to Thanatos, who fell and became the God of the Abyss.
A living being who couldn’t normally have attained divinity had instead gained too much power in too short a time. That led to being driven by desire, unable to stay still and always hungering for more power.
Perhaps that was the root of corruption. The force that reacted most violently to his unrest was his demonic force, the power of the Demon King.
The youngest of his powers, yet already the most rampant and unruly.
‘Don’t get cocky.’
Davey crushed the rampaging demonic force with devil mana. He then stabilized the chaotic elemental mana by fusing it with divine power, eventually bringing all the rest of his powers under control.
Once he’d consumed the powers through the authority of Predatory Assimilation, they had been modified to cater perfectly to him.
He knew he never would’ve made it so far if he couldn’t control even his own powers.
Ignoring the trembling strangers in front of him, Davey was focused completely on rebalancing his unstable powers. When the storm inside him finally calmed, he let out a short breath.
He knew it’d take days of careful effort to fully reclaim total control. Until then, he had to avoid any unnecessary bloodshed.
He got an impulse screaming that he could just kill all but one of them and still get answers. However, he knew that would just be the beginning of the end. Letting things slide like that would eventually twist him into something unrecognizable.
‘If Reina changed because of what I’ve become...’
He couldn't afford to make things worse.
“Put the swords down.”
Even with the cold warning, the fighters didn’t budge easily.
Davey had hoped to gain information from them, yet realistically, they wouldn’t know where Reina had gone either.
When he was about to walk past them and move on, the eldest sister called out, “Wait! Please! Are you looking for that girl?”
He stayed silent.
“We are too! She saved our lives! From the look of you, it seems like you’re related to her. Please, let us come with you. We’ll give you what information we can as long as you’ll help us too.”
“Why?”
She swallowed nervously and responded, “We never even got to thank her. We ran because we were scared... but without her help, we would all be dead right now.”
Her sincere words helped Davey fully suppress his power. His head cleared, and rational thought returned.
“
Haah.
Where did Reina go?”
“Her name was Reina? I see... Well, our three guards were investigating the surroundings before they returned a moment ago. Malcolm, please tell him what you found.”
“
Huh?
Oh,
yes, Miss. There aren’t many traces of her left... but it looks like she went north.”
“North...?”
“Yes, towards the conflict zone.”
The girl's face darkened at the information.
Not that it mattered to Davey where specifically she’d ended up. He just needed to find Reina, and do it quickly.
He began walking again without hesitation.
“W-Wait!”
“What is it?”
“Are you really going to the conflict zone?!”
“Yeah.”
The girl bit her lip. “You can’t! If you go into the conflict zone unprepared, you’re bound to get caught in something dangerous!”
Her harsh outcry irritated him. Conflict zone or not, it didn’t matter to him if humans were fighting amongst themselves. Yet at that point in his thought, Davey paused.
‘Again.’
That damned world was just too strange.
He forced himself to suppress the rising impulse and looked the girl in the eyes. “So, what? You don’t want me to go?”
“I... I may not look like much now, but I was once the eldest daughter of a high noble family before our nation was annexed by the Nacha Empire. Our family still holds some influence, so I’m sure I can provide some help.”
She was offering assistance to make sure nothing went wrong when he entered the conflict zone.
“And what makes you trust me?”
“You're worried, aren't you?”
Her words silenced him. He then noticed something familiar in her eyes. “You... You were a Saintness candidate.”
While she didn’t bear the stigmata, he could tell she was a human who had received either a Saint Miracle or divine grace.
While people like Archbishop Alice or Saintess Lena had received divine grace, those like the girl before him or Iro—the former saint who wielded divine power despite being a skeleton—had been granted a miracle.
“So what? You want to come along?”
“You're strong, I can tell! Please, let me go with you.”
“Hey!!” the boy cried out in shock, but she shook her head.
“If we don’t do this now, we’ll never find her. Don’t worry about me.” After calming her siblings, she turned to the guards. “If I go, I can take care of any minor issues in the conflict zone. Please, let me go.”
Davey let out a slow sigh at her insistence.
‘Of all the places to run to, Reina, you just had to go into a warzone.’
If restraining his power and avoiding killing would help stabilize things, then diving into a conflict zone and tearing everything apart would be the absolute worst option.
However, if he could use the noble girl just right, perhaps things would work out for the better.
After sorting through his thoughts, Davey reached into the air.
Shing.
A crimson sword materialized in his hand.
“Miss!!”
Before the guards could react, he’d already slashed his sword.
Hearing a sickening tearing sound, the girl flinched and shut her eyes tightly. Something had been cut clean through.
However, when she realized she was unharmed, she slowly opened them.
“W-What...?”
Thud!!
What they saw was a black ogre on the ground, with its upper and lower bodies cleanly severed.
“A black ogre... When did it show up?!”
“Did he just cut that thing down with one swing?”
He was capable of more than just the pressure they had felt earlier. After seeing his actual combat power, their fear was intertwined with shock.
“Follow me,” Davey said as he pulled himself back together. “My head's not in the right place, though, so don’t expect me to be considerate.”
Until he got used to whatever the damned dimension was doing to him, he knew it’d be impossible to treat anyone gently.

.
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Chapter 1203